


Sweet Voice Songs

by IRegretNothingAndEverything



Series: Tommy is of the stars, Benrey of the void, Bubby of the tube, and Coomer of the enhanced. Gordon? Gordon's along for the ride. [6]
Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: Benrey's vibes are weird rn, Introspection, M/M, Sign Language, he was missing skin for a bit but he's okay now, joshua is deaf, on Bubby's part, slight gore, the og character is gordon's ex wife her name is harmony i still love her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:07:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25837768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IRegretNothingAndEverything/pseuds/IRegretNothingAndEverything
Summary: Benrey wants Gordon to smile. He wants them all to be okay, because he's selfish like that. He loves them too much to let them go.
Relationships: Bubby/Dr. Coomer (Half-Life), Pre Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Series: Tommy is of the stars, Benrey of the void, Bubby of the tube, and Coomer of the enhanced. Gordon? Gordon's along for the ride. [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1871698
Comments: 9
Kudos: 169





	Sweet Voice Songs

**Author's Note:**

> Benrey's perspective it really fun to write from, like, a lot of fun.

It was, in the end, Benrey’s fault. 

Now, no one told him this, but G-Man had come after them all because of him. He was an anomaly, but... well, Benrey was a sentimental fool who looked at his friends and couldn’t let them go. 

Not even when it hurt them. 

Which, kinda sucked. Bubby going back in his tube, that is. It wasn’t good for Bubby, it wasn’t good for Coomer, and it wasn’t good for any of them to see the damage that G-Man had done to him. Still, Tommy had destroyed his father as completely as that man could be destroyed. 

It would be selfish of him to leave now. It had been selfish if he left before, and it had been selfish when he had broken down in front of them and desperately wanted to stay. 

He wasn’t going to pretend that it wasn’t. 

Benrey had accepted a long time ago that he was a selfish sentimental bastard. It hurt, a lot, actually, realizing that maybe it was more than that. 

Tommy had been the first to say that, when they had met so long ago and Tommy had laughed off the idea that Benrey was scary. A lot of the other guards and scientists had been scared of him, who knows why, but Tommy just attached himself. 

It didn’t take long for Benrey to know Tommy wasn’t human. It also hadn’t taken long to see the other few inhumans littered around. Coomer had started human and then... wasn’t anymore, and the shift was obvious. Bubby, on the other hand, was artificial. Black Mesa was fucked up, and it was a lot more obvious when he realized that it was run by Tommy’s father. 

G-Man was a bitch. Benrey would say that one hundred percent, he hated G-Man with everything in his soul, and just got closer to Tommy, partially out of spite against G-Man. Tommy was his friend. 

Benrey really hated that it ended up like this. 

Tommy passed out against Gordon’s side, pushing the other into him slightly. Benrey was the one leaning back, making sure Gordon and Tommy didn’t fall over onto the floor. Coomer had finally succumbed to exhaustion, leaning against Bubby’s tube. Benrey was the only one awake. 

He liked it that way, half the time. It was easier to be awake and deal with his emotions that force that half sleep he could accomplish. He would still have to think and worry about it all, but through a haze of stifled emotions. 

Benrey sighed, tilting his head back and singing softly, letting the color fill the room, surround them. He didn’t think too hard on it, just let the emotion fill the notes of nothing, pouring into rainbows that floated around, shining light on the room. He was tired. 

Maybe sleeping would be alright. 

* * *

Coomer said that Bubby was going to be okay in the long run. There would be some complications dealing with regrowing over 70% of his skin, but he would be okay. Benrey forced that to slide of his back. He wasn’t the one who hurt him, he wasn’t the one who took him to Xen, pushed until he snapped. 

He pretended like it worked. 

Sometimes Benrey wondered if he was really worth all this. They could have just let him leave, let him disappear. Not even G-Man could have killed him in any way that mattered in the long run, but then he thought about it. He thought about Tommy curled up in his lap, crying over the thought of losing any of them, clinging onto them all like his life depended on it, Bubby with his face pressed against his chest, Gordon making a promise he had no way of being able to keep, and yet... 

He kept it. 

Gordon was continuing to keep this promise, that one day he was going to have to break, but. 

The Sweet Voice Gordon now had said differently. 

Maybe Gordon could keep that promise? Maybe it would be alright.

* * *

Bubby woke up once when it was just him, and Benrey let relief slam into him like a bus, turning his head, unnoticed by Bubby, to sing a few notes out, get his heart back under his control, and talked with him until Bubby slipped back off to sleep. He talked to Coomer too, when Coomer came in seconds after Bubby was out. 

Coomer seemed to be alright, watching his husband float peacefully, and Benrey left him, let him stare up and hope, and Benrey didn’t say anything about the blue to green he had sung out at him moments before, that he would continue to sing out to all of them, hoping it would help, infusing the very bones of this home with healing, making it safe. 

He would keep it safe. No matter what. 

* * *

Gordon would visit Joshua sometimes, but never brought him home. To be fair, home was Tommy’s apartment in the void right now, so he couldn’t, not really, but Benrey knew it hurt him a bit. He loved his son, completely and wholeheartedly, and being without him for so long meant going without waking up to him having scrambled out of bed and bouncing on his own. 

So, Benrey was going to make it happen. He needed to see Gordon smile like that again. He needed to see Gordon happy despite everything, he... 

Fuck it. He was in love, and he hated seeing Gordon so down. 

It made sense, Benrey couldn’t deny that. Gordon had been through hell, but that... Well, even with all that, he deserved to smile. 

Harmony just smiled knowingly at him, watching the color float around her home as he sat on the couch, leaking pink to blue from behind his hand as he tried to pretend he had control of it. “You really do love him.” 

“I would... appreciate you not telling him?” He muttered, and Harmony laughed, patting his shoulder as she stood. 

“Let me go get Joshua ready. Maybe you can get this under control by the time he’s packed for a weekend?” 

He didn’t. 

* * *

The weekend was nice. Benrey had never seen Gordon smile so much as when he was interacting with Joshua. He had waited until Bubby had all his skin again to bring him, so that they could leave the door open, and the two of them could sign at each other, while Bubby was awake that is. 

Harmony was probably going to get a lot of weird stories when they returned. Benrey could only half follow the conversations they had, the only one that didn’t actually know sign. It ended up with him teaching Gordon sweet voice, and everyone else teaching him bits and pieces of sign. 

Benrey didn’t... remember the last time he smiled so truthfully this much. 

Gordon and Joshua were a nice family. Benrey wondered, briefly, if he would fit, but threw that thought away. He didn’t want to push this on Gordon too. 

Tommy kept shooting him looks about it, but until Tommy accepted they weren’t going to be upset at him for crying about having to kill his dad, Benrey didn’t think he got an opinion on it. 

* * *

Tommy came to him a few days later. He ended up falling asleep on Benrey’s lap, which, honestly, was happening a lot more often with more than just him, and it made him... content. He had his family, he was not going to let go of them, not if he could help it. 

Gordon came in looking for them about an hour later, and Benrey had to wake up Tommy. He really didn’t want to, since Tommy seemed so calm, clinging onto his leg, but Benrey knew that he needed to eat too. So, up they got. 

They ate dinner in Bubby’s tube room, Bubby shakily signing at them to just throw chips into his tube, it was fine, let him eat the god damn Doritos you heathens-

Coomer didn’t let them throw any Doritos into the tube. 

* * *

Benrey curled up on the couch with Gordon, watching their sweet voice float around the room, as Gordon stared up from his lap, smiling softly. Benrey looked down at him quietly, one hand petting through the mess of his hair. Gordon hummed at him, smiling. 

He ignored the pink to blue pouring out of their mouths, and pretended that he wasn’t feeling something he had told himself long ago that he would never be able to feel. 

If they waited a bit longer... it would be better. 

**Author's Note:**

> And for now! This is all I have! I'm not... entirely sure what this is, to be completely honest, but he's still fun to write. 
> 
> I do want to add Frenrey actually getting together, but that might wait a bit while I get through the HLVRAI requests I have building up.


End file.
